Dutra pleads not guilty -- Published April 4, 2002

Camera crews and notebook-toting reporters from more than a dozen media outlets crowded a San Joaquin County courtroom Wednesday for Sarah Dutra's continued arraignment, during which the 21-year-old woman pleaded not guilty to charges she murdered Sacramento attorney Larry McNabney.

By Linda Hughes-Kirchubel

recordnet.com

By Linda Hughes-Kirchubel

Posted May. 19, 2005 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 15, 2007 at 7:34 AM

By Linda Hughes-Kirchubel

Posted May. 19, 2005 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 15, 2007 at 7:34 AM

» Social News

Camera crews and notebook-toting reporters from more than a dozen media outlets crowded a San Joaquin County courtroom Wednesday for Sarah Dutra's continued arraignment, during which the 21-year-old woman pleaded not guilty to charges she murdered Sacramento attorney Larry McNabney.

McNabney's adult children Tavia Williams, Cristin Becker and Joe McNabney fought back emotion as they watched the only remaining defendant in their father's murder case walk slowly into the courtroom, handcuffed, as both still and video cameras captured her image.

Superior Court Judge Bernard Garber scheduled Dutra's next court date for April 18. At that time, a preliminary hearing date is expected to be set.

Dutra, 21, McNabney's former secretary, is accused of helping Laren Renee Sims Jordan, McNabney's wife, kill him in September. She's also accused of helping Jordan conceal the body, which was refrigerated for several months after his death.

McNabney's body was discovered in February in a shallow grave in Linden.

Sims Jordan, known also as Elisa McNabney, wrote a detailed confession of the crime before she hanged herself in a Florida county jail Saturday. In a lengthy suicide note released Tuesday, Jordan said McNabney physically abused her and once again admitted she killed him.

Reporters and camera operators converged on defense and prosecuting attorneys outside the courthouse and upon the McNabney family, which had prepared a statement requesting privacy now that the legal proceedings are under way.

The family was represented by Kim Petersen of the Carole Sund/Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation, which was established by the families of three women slain at Yosemite National Park in 1999. Carey Stayner is on trial for those crimes.

"We were shocked and horrified by the recent events with Elisa," Petersen said in reading the statement. "With malice and forethought, Elisa and her accomplice took our dad's life, took all his money and personal belongings, and now Elisa is trying to destroy his character. Our lives ... have been forever altered.

"Now is the time that we step back and allow the legal system to proceed in acquiring justice for our dad," Petersen read.

Dutra's Sacramento-based attorney, Kevin Clymo, said he likely will ask that a preliminary hearing date be set quickly.

"I might come back in two weeks and say (we're ready,)" he said. "What I've seen so far sort of pushes me in that direction. I don't want her to have to spend any more time in (jail) than she has to."

The intense media attention brings an added dimension to the proceedings, which began as a missing-person investigation in the fall and evolved into a complex case featuring embezzlement, poisoning and a cross-country pursuit of Jordan. Her weekend suicide added one more twist to an already bizarre case.

The media attention could have implications further down the line.

"When we see cases of this nature attracting national attention, we do sort of cringe in anticipation of a possible venue change because of the cost and inconvenience of trying cases outside of San Joaquin," Assistant District Attorney Jim Willett said.

Because of extensive media coverage in San Joaquin County, last year's murder trials of Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog, who were convicted in the deaths of Cyndi Vanderheiden, Paul Cavanaugh and Howard King, were tried in Santa Clara County. The District Attorney's Office estimates the venue change increased the cost of the trial by more than $250,000.

While the Carrington family supported the change of venue in the Stayner case, Petersen said, venue changes can be difficult.

"It is difficult, because you're away from your support system. You're away from your home," she said. "And yet it's an understood necessity."

Court public-information officer Leanne Kozak said she didn't know how many media outlets attended the hearing, but added it's more than she's seen since her hiring seven months ago. Clearly, she said, it makes her job "more interesting."

The court staff, including Presiding Judge George Abdallah, attempts to think ahead and anticipate the demands a large news media presence makes on court security and the facility as a whole, she said.